Episode #158 - Early Christian Protagonists and their Impairments with Dr. Kylie Crabbe

Continuing our series on disability and theology, we conclude our look at textual matters within this series by looking at protagonists and their impairments in early Christian literature with Dr. Kylie Crabbe, who is Senior Research Fellow in Biblical and Early Christian Studies, and Director of Graduate Research Programs for the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, which is part of Australian Catholic University. She holds a current Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council (2022-2024) for her project ‘Inside Others: Early Christian Protagonists and Their Impairments’. Over the course of our conversation, we discuss the function of the impairments of protagonists within early Christian texts. In particular, we look at the infertility of Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke, the representation of John in the apocryphal Acts of John, and the representation of Peter’s daughter in the apocryphal Acts of Peter. As we do so we juxtapose this discussion with the representation of Paul within the canonical book of Acts relative to his description of himself in his letters. Dr. Crabbe is keen to point out the differences at work when a character with an impairment is the main character in their own story rather than a peripheral character whose purpose is to show us something about the unimpaired protagonist. Team members on the episode from The Two Cities include: Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Stephanie Kate Judd, and Rev. Dr. Chris Porter.

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